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Thursday, March 07, 2013

Assertions, Denunciations and Accusations

One of the frustrating things about the debate over same-sex marriage
is that rarely are its advocates—and those inclined to sympathize with
them—willing to row back upstream and examine whether sexual
complementarity is accidental or essential to marriage. Instead, they
make statements that presuppose an acceptance of the current definition
of marriage (i.e., they merely seek equal access to the existing
institution) while, consciously or unconsciously, they work toward a
contrary goal: the destruction of marriage through its ­redefinition.

Last year I wrote an article for Salvo magazine in which I lamented the host of hidden assumptions that permeate the debate surrounding gay 'marriage.' I commented that what might be an opportunity for rigorous
philosophical dialogue about the nature of reality itself descends into
an endless cycle of assertions, denunciations, and accusations. Instead
of spelling out their philosophical positions and putting them on the
table for objective analysis, homosexual activists are usually content
to construct arguments based on hidden assumptions—­assumptions that
remain unexamined and insulated from critique, and that therefore can
give rise to the type of mutually exclusive affirmations mentioned
above.